Improvement in box-openers



J. C. GASTON.

Improvement in Box Openers.

No.124,049. V .9 Patented Feb. 27, 1872 Inventor.

-' ED STATES JEREMIAH O. GASTON, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN BOX-OPENERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 124,049, dated February 27, 1872.

I, JEREMIAH 0. GASTON, of the city of Oincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful BoxUpener, of'which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to furnish a simple, cheap, and durable instrument in one piece of metal for opening boxes without splitting the lid, or in any manner injuring the box, or the nails driven in it. My invention is so constructed as, also, to answer the general purpose of a hammer in nailing up boxes.

In the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, Figure I is a side elevation of the opener. Fig. II is an end elevation of the same. Fig. III is a View of the opener in position to force up the lid of the box.

A constitutes that part of the opener which is in one piece of metal. In the lower end of the opener is a wooden plug, B, which is struck by a mallet or other suitable instrument to force the lid upward. O is a flange projecting laterally from the side of the opener, near its top, and beveled on its under side, but presenting on its upper side a face which is inclined slightly upward from the side of the opener, so that when this face fits against the under side of a box-lid the lower end of the opener will stand off from the side of the box, to be grasped by the hand and driven by a mallet or other suitable instrument. D is a vertical flange in the top of the opener, parallel to and forming a right angle with the vertical flange G. On the back of the opener, and opposite to the flange O, is a head, E,

which is struck to force the flange 0 under the lid, and is also intended to answer the general purposes of a hammer. F is a notch in the edge of the flange G, which fits round the nail and protects it as the flange is being forced under the lid. It also prevents the nail from pulling through the lid when it is being forced up from the box.

To open the box, the lower flange O is forced under the lid wherever a nail is driven until the face of the upright flange rests against the end or side of the box and prevents the lower flange from slipping further inward. The opener is then driven upward by striking its lower end until the lid is started at that point; when the operation is repeated at other points where nails are driven until the lid is raised. Care should always be taken to set the flange so that the notch will drive round the nail and prevent its being cut in two or pulled through the lid.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As a new article of manufacture, a boxopener provided with flanges O and D, head E, and notch F, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. The combination of flange 0, head E, and plug B, when used on a box-opener, substantially as and for the purposes described.

JEREMIAH G. GASTON.

Witnesses:

PHILIP M. SHUEY, J. TwoHIG. 

